Athletic budget update #36 - Oklahoma athletics providing signifcant support to academic budget

Oklahoma's athletic department announced that it is going to increase its annual payment to the academic side of the house to $7 million for the coming year. This is a 75% increase over the previous year.

Central Florida has increased their athletic fee by $0.58 per credit hour. While this may not seem like much, the total revenue increase for the department will be more than $500,000, moving from $15.7 million to $16.2 million in fees. UCF has also signed new media rights contract with ISP that will bring in an additional $360,000.

Florida International has eliminated their cheer leading team as part of a 6% budget reduction and in an effort to find more than a $1 million in savings. More cuts, including layoffs, will be announced in the coming weeks. This follows an earlier decision to eliminate the marching band.

Cal Riverside, initially facing a $200,000 budget reduction, is now anticipating an even greater reduction following the state of California's decision to reduce UCR's funding by an additional $21 million to $40 million. UCR's athletic budget is currently $8.7 million.

The Houston Chronicle has a detailed article about cuts that are happening at Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, and Houston. A&M is reducing energy costs by adjusting air conditioning in some buildings and also eliminated free soft drinks for staff (as has Texas). Texas is also reducing their use of printers to save on ink and has asked employees to park in less expensive parking at the airport. Meanwhile, Rice has reduced team budgets by 10% across the board and eliminated media guides and Houston has reduced their budget for next year by approximately $1 million.